About fifty percent of the 35 km long Wachaustrasse is located close to the left bank of the Danube. During its construction in the 1950s, the media referred to the road as the “Danube-bank-runway” or “road on the stream”. To take a closer look at this relationship between the road and the Danube, we board a liner.

The ship is our steadily moving camera platform. The camera is pointed sideways into the distance and records the passing landscape. This opens up new views of the integration of the traffic routes and infrastructure buildings in the Wachau. From our position on the ship, the road is often only visible due to the moving cars. The retaining walls of the road were made of local stone as irregularly layered masonry with narrow joints. “Due to the types of stone used, a colour tone of the walls was achieved that blends harmoniously into the landscape and in no way contrasts with the old vineyard walls” (Die niederösterreichische Illustrierte, September 1958, p.5). The greening of the riverbank is another component of the landscape integration of the road. Seen from the river perspective, the planting of the stone berms with white willow, silver poplar, sea-buckthorn, and grey alder is most noticeable.

Architect Herbert Ursprunger was responsible for the landscape design of the Wachaustrasse in the 1950s. We had the opportunity to interview him and learn about the challenges of planting willows (Salix) along the river bank as part of the road construction. In addition to information and anecdotes about the development of the Wachaustrasse, we also heard about his own role, planning principles and design criteria for the roadside revegation planning. We received photos from his private collection, which he took himself during and after the construction work. The interview and photos provide us with important starting points for our road studies.